


hey mom, i met a boy

by disasteralex



Series: hey mom, i met a boy [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Canon Compliant, Coming Out, Disaster gay Shiro, F/F, F/M, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Gay Keith (Voltron), Gay Shiro (Voltron), Getting Together, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Pining Keith (Voltron), Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Season/Series 08, Post-Season/Series 08 Finale, Season 8 Fix It, Slow Burn, broganes, chaotic gay keith, i love my sons, s8 made me write this out of spite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 15:43:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17103407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/disasteralex/pseuds/disasteralex
Summary: “Do you think you can love two people at once?”“I think you can love different people for different reasons but in equal ways. But that doesn’t mean any of those loves are lesser than the rest.”The war was hard. Its end is even harder. But when Lance breaks, Keith and the others are there to help him heal.Somewhere along the way, Keith finds his place in the universe, Shiro gets his happy ending, and Lance learns to fall in love again.





	hey mom, i met a boy

**Author's Note:**

> title from [willow smith's 'boy'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LErPkqoApho).
> 
>   
>  _Hey mom, I met a boy_   
>  _He's super sad_   
>  _But I think that I love him_   
>  _Is that bad?_   
> 

The Atlas is too quiet.

Keith didn’t realize it before, under the bustle of everyone, under the noise of the deck and the constant footsteps. But he hears it now, the almost complete silence except for the low, quiet hum of the air system. No one says a word. It feels like everyone’s holding their breath.

He lived in a shack in the desert for a year and he never realized how absolutely _deafening_ this kind of silence could be.

 _She’s gone_.

Across from him, Lance sniffles.

Keith is on his feet in a second, settling in front of Lance as he starts to sob and pulling him into his chest. Hunk, already beside Lance, folds his arms over the two of them, and then Pidge darts in on the other side. Keith feels Shiro settle beside him, then Coran, then Romelle. Kosmo pushes himself close at their feet, curling around the group as best he can. Keith can hear the Lions in his head, a single, sorrowful note.

And they cry.

No one says a single word.

 

\--

 

Halfway into the trip, Keith sneaks out of his bunk in the middle of the night to grab something to eat and finds Lance crumpled in the middle of the hallway. There’s a tiny stuffed blue lion in his fist and his eyes are bloodshot. Keith’s heart twists.

“Lance?” he asks, crouching down beside him carefully. He’s not good at comforting people—never has been—but he’s more than willing to try. “What’s wrong?”

“I miss her,” Lance whimpers, and then his eyes spill over with tears. He doesn’t bother to wipe them off anymore, and it’s so not-Lance, so wrong, and Keith wants to scream. “I miss her, Keith.”

Keith pulls him in and holds him tight. Lance scrunches his face into Keith’s shoulder, nose bumping Keith’s collarbone in time to his sobs. His entire body is shaking. Keith doesn’t think he’s ever hurt for another person this much before.

They stay like that for two hours, until Hunk finds them asleep on the floor. Keith can barely find it in him to blush.

 

\--

 

Keith feels the weight of Allura’s death deep in his chest. It’s nothing like Lance’s—it could never be—but it aches like an open wound. Earth-shattering and raw. But some days, he’s not sure if the pain on his friend’s face or Allura’s final goodbye hurts more.

 

\--

 

It takes them three weeks to get back. Somehow, Earth is worse than the Atlas.

Keith can see the crowd waiting for them as they get closer to the ground, knows their families are down there waiting for them, knows what’s coming.

There’s a small bump as the Atlas touches down. Keith sees everyone filter out, rushing to their families. He sees Hunk and Pidge lag behind, walking a reluctant Lance to the door, to the ground, to his family. Keith knows.

He stands in front of the observation window and watches Lance’s family run towards him. He sees them touch the marks on Lance’s face, sees their mouths open in confusion, sees them look between each other and wonder where Allura is, and then—

Lance breaks.

Krolia’s hand lands on his shoulder. Keith turns away, his throat tight, and wishes it had been him instead. Wishes it had been anyone instead. Lance deserved better. _Allura_ deserved better. Hell, they all did.

They’re too young for this kind of hurt.

Sometimes, he thinks he sees too much.

 

\--

 

Look. Keith likes Lance.

He’s not sure when it happened, really, or when he stopped denying it. Somewhere between _we_ are _a good team_ and _leave the math to Pidge_ , probably. He remembers how hurt he was when Lance forgot the bonding moment. He remembers getting annoyed when Lance flirted with every alien that looked female. He remembers the ball in his stomach when he saw a vision of Lance and Allura kissing on the space whale. He remembers. He likes him a lot, maybe even is kind of in love with him at this point. (Maybe. Probably.)

Keith knows he’s screwed. He’s known ever since walked off that pod with Romelle and his mom and snapped at Lance in a way that reminded him a little too much of Shiro’s gay panicking around Adam. (In hindsight, the fact that Shiro didn’t outright laugh at it should’ve given his clone status away immediately.) He knew it again when he snapped at Lance during _Garfle Warfle Snick_ because he couldn’t handle Lance calling him the future. He _knows_. He doesn’t think anyone else does, thankfully, except Shiro. Shiro has always been able to read Keith too well.

And he knows it’s never going to happen. Keith is an impatient, socially-unaware and occasionally selfish ball of rage, but he resigned himself long ago to the fact that he was going to have to watch Lance and Allura get together and get married and have kids and shit rainbows or whatever together, and he was fine with that. He would force himself to be.

But it hurt, still. A part of him died a little when Lance told him they were going on a date, and every time he saw the two of them kiss it felt like a punch to the gut, but he was fine. He had no other choice. If it made Lance happy, and if it made Allura happy, that was all that mattered. Lance loved her, and that was enough. Keith has survived worse.

And then Allura died.

Keith had expected himself to feel some kind of sick relief afterwards, because that meant that the two of them weren’t together anymore. Like he had some kind of chance. But it’s been a month and he feels nothing. There is no silver lining to this, just sadness and grief.

He wonders sometimes what Allura would think. He kinda hates himself for liking her boyfriend so much, like it’s wrong, like it’s a disservice to her memory or something. He’s not sure. He just feels guilty most of the time, and he’s not really sure what for.

 

\--

 

Allura’s funeral is held a week later. It’s a traditional Altean funeral, something Coran made sure of, and it feels like the entire universe came to pay their respects. There are so many people and so many faces and voices and Keith’s ears are buzzing with static. He feels like he’s drowning, and he wants to cry, but it’s like his brain forgot how.

Coran is officiating in Altean, every second word punctuated by a choked sob. Keith doesn’t know what he’s saying, but he can guess enough of it. He’s been to funerals before and seen death, too many times for his age, but it’s never hurt like this does. Never felt like someone’s taking an ice-pick to his chest and splitting it open for the world to see.

He doesn’t realize Coran has stopped talking until Lance gets up from beside him. Keith watches him go, feet slow, stumbling every few steps. When he reaches the dais, his hands shake.

“Allura was the love of my life,” Lance says. Keith sees him swallow, knows he’s fighting back tears again. “She was brave and beautiful and kind and she changed every single one of us for the better. She saw the best in everyone, no matter what happened, no matter what she’d been through. Everyone she touched, she changed for the better. Allura was—she was the brightest star in this universe and the best thing I ever knew and I will miss her every day of my life.” He pauses, wipes his eyes, and Keith feels his heart break for the other boy. “Remember Allura. Remember what she did for us.”

Keith dimly hears clapping as Lance sits back down beside him, looking smaller than Keith’s ever seen him. A part of him wants to reach out, say something, but his body won’t work right.

The next speeches blur past as if a horrible nightmare: Romelle, then Shiro, and then… him.

Keith gets up, slowly, and makes his way towards the dais. He prepared a speech, worked on it for hours and hours, because Allura deserved everything he had. Nothing ever seemed good enough. But as the paper in front of him blurs, it’s all he has.

“Allura was one of the first people who accepted me for who I am,” Keith says, voice shaking. “When I first found out I was Galra, I thought she would hate me for it. I would’ve understood it if she did. Here I was, part of the race that destroyed her whole planet—her whole _world_. But she didn’t.” There are tears collecting at the corners of his eyes, but he smiles past them, voice going rough. “Allura believed in me when few others did, because that’s who she was. She loved and she led and she _never_ gave up on the universe. She might be gone, but she’s still here in all of us, and her memory can lead us to the future.” He pauses again, taking a deep breath. “Allura’s sacrifice will not be forgotten.”

He hears the claps as he walks off the stage and back to his seat, sees Shiro smile at him proudly out of the corner of his eye. He’s shaking all over now, frantic, and he just wants to sit down, wants to get all the eyes off him, wants to disappear.

Allura deserved better.

Finally, he reaches his seat. Lance seems almost frozen, not moving a single muscle. He’s not crying anymore, which Keith thinks is a good thing. He stays that way for a while. Then, as the juniberry flowers fall onto her empty casket, he reaches out and grabs Keith’s hand.

Keith squeezes back and holds it like a lifeline.

 

\--

 

Lance is the first to leave.

About a month after Allura’s funeral, Lance asks them all to meet on the launching pad. “I’m going back to Cuba with my family,” he says once Pidge, the last to arrive, runs up, soldering mask pushed up over her forehead. “I’m gonna help them on their farm. I just—I need to get out of here for a while.”

Silence.

“We understand, Lance,” Shiro says, his robot arm settling on Lance’s shoulder. If Keith didn’t know the older man so well, he wouldn’t notice the concern on his face. “Do whatever you need to heal.”

Keith feels like he can’t breathe. He doesn’t think he has in months.

“We’ll miss you, buddy,” Hunk says next, his eyes going a little watery as he moves to crush Lance in a hug. He’s been crying a lot these days, almost as much as Lance.

“Don’t forget about us,” Pidge adds as she darts forward to wrap her arms around Lance, because Keith isn’t the only paladin who has trouble showing emotion.

Lance turns to him. Keith tries to unstick his mouth, find the right words to say. It’s the first time in almost two months that Lance has looked at him this directly. Keith had forgotten what it was like to have those ocean blue eyes looking straight at him, forgotten about the freckle under Lance’s eye, the scar curving under his chin. He swallows thickly. “Voltron may be over now, but you’re still our family, Lance. We’re here for you, no matter what. Remember that.”

Lance hugs him tight, hands settling between Keith’s shoulder-blades, and whispers a quiet _thanks_ into his shoulder. Keith hugs him back. He’s still not sure if he said it right, but Shiro gives him a covert-thumbs up, so he figures he did something good.

Then Lance turns and walks away, and Keith doesn’t know if he’s going to come back.

 

\--

 

Lance slowly drops out of contact.

He responds to their messages like normal at first. Then they become shorter. Now, Keith’s lucky if he gets a single word back.

Keith is the second to leave, taking Krolia, Kolivan and Kosmo (Matt calls them the Kardashians, and no one else knows why, but it makes Matt giggle) along with him on the Black Lion. Pidge hugs him tight, just like she did with Lance. It’s as familiar as it is comforting. Hunk nearly breaks his bones hugging him goodbye, but it’s so unbearably _Hunk_ that Keith almost cries a little, although he’d never admit it. Shiro gives him his best Dad Look and tells him to be careful and take care of himself, and Keith can’t help but roll his eyes and say _“_ yes, _Dad_.” Pidge and Matt cackle, and Shiro huffs.

“Can I talk to you for a second?” he asks, nodding away from the group. Keith furrows his brow, but nods, following Shiro to the other side of the platform.

“Have you spoken to Lance recently?”

Keith stops, looking down. He messaged Lance yesterday, telling him he was leaving Earth with the Blades and that he hoped Lance was doing okay. He never heard back. He’s not sure what he expected—Lance rushing to the Garrison to say goodbye? No. The radio silence still hurts, though. He had hoped for at least _something._

“No,” he says, trying to keep his voice flat. “He isn’t answering me. Pidge says she’s talked to Veronica and he’s doing okay, though.”

Shiro looks at him. “And are you okay with that?”

Keith stops, swallows. “Look, this—this isn’t about me,” he says, trying not to sound as small as he feels. “What I feel doesn’t matter right now. I just want him to be okay.”

Shiro looks at him for a second longer, then draws him into a hug. “You act so mature now,” he says, sounding a little too wistful for his age. “Sometimes I miss the old you.”

Keith snorts. “No, you don’t. I was a hell-creature.” He’s not lying: once, he almost scalped Adam because he got bored and decided to use the wall of Shiro’s apartment for target practice with his knife.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Shiro grins, ruffling Keith’s hair. Keith, like always, tries to squirm away. “Still are, sometimes.”

“Bane of my existence,” Keith grumbles as Shiro finally lets him go, shaking his head. Both of them know he doesn’t mean it. “I’ll let you know when we get there, okay?”

Shiro nods and Keith steps away, feet taking him towards Black. A part of him doesn’t want to leave, but he needs to go, needs to do something to get this itch out from under his skin.

Keith finds himself in Lion, pulling up the controls. The others, still waving at him from below, slowly fade from view. Then they’re gone.

He can hear Krolia and Kolivan moving around in Black’s cargo hold, checking supplies. It feels too quiet again, and then—

His communicator beeps.

He grabs it immediately, fumbling a little, and looks down at the screen. _Lance McClain._ He thinks his heart stops for a second, like in one of those ridiculous romance novels Shiro likes to pretend he doesn’t read.

**From: Lance McClain**

_stay safe_

Two words. But it’s something.

He lets out a breath, fingers hesitating over the keypad.

**To: Lance McClain**

_You too, sharpshooter._

“Are you alright?” Krolia asks, coming up behind him.

“Yeah,” Keith says, keeping his eyes trained on the sky in front of him.

It’s something.

 

\--

 

Acxa and the generals drop by a few movements after Keith lands on Daibazaal. He may not totally trust them entirely yet, but he’s glad for the company, and even more glad for the help. It’s a lot of work, re-stabilizing a former empire.

He’s sitting on Black’s paw one day when Acxa sits down beside him. Something about her seems almost hesitant.

“Everything okay?” he asks carefully, turning towards her.

“I realized I never actually gave my condolences for the princess,” she says, clasping her hands together. “I didn’t know her well, but I’m sorry that she’s gone. She did a lot for the universe.”

Keith stiffens a little bit. It hurts that she died, still, but Acxa’s words feel wrong, like he’s not the one who should be getting them. “Thanks. But Lance is the one you should be saying that to.” In the back of his mind, he can hear Shiro chiding him. _Your pain is real, Keith._ Yeah, he knows. But Shiro’s not here right now, so he can suck it.

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?” Acxa asks, like that’s a completely normal thing to follow up with, like they’re talking about the weather or something.

Keith whips his head toward her, ready to deny it. The last thing he needs is everyone finding out about his stupid ginormous crush on the former Red Paladin. But she just smiles a little, just barely, and says, “I know.” Then, “I guess both of us have experienced affections for people who won’t return them.”

Keith may be the most oblivious person in the world sometimes, but even he can pick up on context clues, especially when everyone has been saying she has a crush on him. “I’m gay,” he blurts out, holding back a wince at his own awkwardness.

“I know,” she says again, her smile widening. Then she stands up, brushing off her pants, and offers him a hand. “Come on, there’s more work to do.”

Apparently, it’s just like that. Huh.

 

\--

 

They work. And work.

Allura hurts a little less as time goes on. He feels like he can breathe a little easier now, too. And they’re doing good work out here; they’ve created a base on Daibazaal, and started actively recruiting Galra factions into the Coalition. But at the days go on, it gets lonely sometimes. He misses his friends. He misses _Lance_. The others he at least talks to once or twice a movement; Lance is the only one he hasn’t heard from. Every so often he sends him little updates, like _hey, Kolivan and I ran into Varkon the other day. How’s the farm?_ Or _I think Kosmo misses Kaltenecker. There aren’t many other animals around here._ He hasn’t heard a word from him since they took off, and it’s worrying him. It hurts a little bit, too, even though he would never admit it. He thought they were better friends.

 _Patience,_ Black says in his mind, a little too much like Shiro. He tells him to shut up. He’s _trying_. And If Lance doesn’t want to talk, he’s not going to push it.

 

\--

 

Four phoebs into his time at Daibazaal, he gets a call from the Green Lion.

“Hey, Pidge,” he greets her, smiling a little despite himself. It’s been a few weeks since he saw Pidge, sue him. He can only be Emo McGrumpyFace (Pidge’s words, not his) for so long. “What’s up?”

“Hey, Keith,” Pidge says, smiling a little uneasily. Keith notices that she’s alone in Green, and Matt’s not with her. Usually her brother or another one of the Holts will be around to say hi.

“Everything okay?” he asks, leaning forward in Black’s seat.

Pidge considers him for a moment, then sighs. “It’s Lance.”

Keith’s eyes widen, panic flooding him. “What is it? Is he okay?”

Pidge looks away. “Physically? Yes. But none of us have heard from him in two months. Veronica messaged me today. She’s worried. We all are.” She rubs her hands over her face. “I’m scared, Keith. I know he’s strong, but—Lance loves too fast and too deep. Losing Allura hurt all of us, but Lance… it broke him. He’s not doing well.”

Keith squeezes his eyes shut. “Have you talked to Hunk?” he says after a moment. “Maybe he can talk to Lance. He knows him the best.”

“Hunk tried,” Pidge says flatly. “So did Shiro and I. Even Romelle tried. He won’t talk to any of us.”

“So go visit him?” Keith suggests, ignoring every traitorous cell in his body screaming _go see him_. He has responsibilities now _._ He can’t just leave, no matter how much he wants to.

“I would,” Pidge says, slumping back in her chair. “I want to. But I just—I don’t know if he’ll open up to me. The last few months of Voltron, I wasn’t a good friend to him.” She clears her throat. “Plus, I’m grounded.”

“ _Still_?” Keith scoffs, and then shakes his head. “Look, I just—I don’t know what you want me to do, Pidge. I have work here. I can’t just leave.”

“You could,” says a voice from behind him.

Keith nearly falls out of his chair. Lance was right; Krolia is one spooky-ass woman. He spent two years alone with her and he still doesn’t hear her walking up sometimes.

“Mom,” he says, trying to regain some of his dignity, “how long have you been in here?”

“A while.”

“Great,” he deadpans. Pidge coughs, trying to hide a smirk.

“Keith, you’ve done well here,” Krolia says. “We’ve made a lot of progress, and you deserve a break. What is it Shiro says? Ah, ‘Keith is going to kill himself trying to ignore his problems.’” Keith is going to smack Shiro next time he sees him, that’s what he’s going to do. “Check on the loud one. We’ll be here when you return.”

Keith doesn’t want to believe it. It seems too perfect, almost. “Are you sure? What if you need Black?”

Krolia arches an eyebrow. “I think we’ll manage,” she says drily, and Keith thinks she’s trying to be funny, but it’s hard to tell. “Go.”

She walks out without looking back. Through the comm screen, Pidge looks back at him, pleading. “Please, Keith?”

His resolve disappears almost instantaneously. “Give me a sec,” he says to her, standing up and jogging over to Black’s open mouth. “Hey, Kolivan! I need to go somewhere for a movement.”

The Galra stares at him for a moment, but Keith figures Krolia already mentioned something, because he just nods and turns away. Cool.

“Yeah, fine,” he tells Pidge, who’s smiling in relief. “Send me his coordinates.”

 

\--

 

Here’s the thing: he did not realize when he agreed how nerve-wracking seeing Lance again would be.

It takes him two quintants—two days—to get to Earth, even with Black’s super-speed, but it doesn’t hit until the moment Lance’s farm comes into sight.

He’s seeing Lance for the first time in almost six months—Lance, who he’s kind of sort of maybe in love with—and Lance isn’t doing well.

“I am a Paladin of Voltron,” he says to himself as he touches down a little ways away from the house. Black hums in his mind in support. Kosmo sneezes unhelpfully and licks his hand. “I can do this.”

Mrs. McClain is the first to see him when he walks out of Black.

“Keith?” she calls, dropping the shovel she’s holding and running over. Keith barely has time to brace himself before she wraps him in a hug, squeezing him almost as tightly as Hunk. He’s impressed. “I’m so glad to see you. Pidge sent you, yes?”

So they’ve been talking about Lance. Keith wonders how much they know, because from the look on Mrs. McClain’s face, this has been going on for a while. “Yeah, Mrs. McClain. I don’t know how I’m supposed to help, but we’re worried about him.”

She smiles, patting his shoulder. “Call me Maria,” she says. “And I think you can help more than you know. Hunk is his best friend, but you two… you have a special bond. He listens to you.”

“He didn’t use to,” Keith mutters under his breath. Maria laughs.

“Trust me, I know.” Then she turns around and shouts, “LANCE! _Mijo_ , we have a visitor!”

Five seconds, a set of footsteps, and then… Lance.

“Keith?” he says, eyes wide, and Keith’s eyes snap to him immediately, heart pounding. Lance looks… different. More tan, with freckles dotting the tops of his cheeks. His hair’s shorter, too. And then there’s the dark bags under his empty eyes, the sunken look on his face. The marks are the most vibrant thing about him by a long shot.

Keith stops. He’s suddenly aware of the fact that he’s still wearing his Blade gear and he can’t remember the last time he looked in a mirror. Impatiently, he pushes that aside and opens his mouth.

But before he can say anything, Lance turns heel and runs away.

 

\--

 

Keith finds him in the Red Lion.

It’s the only place Keith thinks to look, but Lance is there, thankfully, hiding in the cargo hold with his knees pulled up to his chest. “You cut your hair,” he says when Keith walks up, but the words are hollow, empty.

Keith shrugs, sitting down across from him. “Felt like it was time.” Truth be told, he got so sick of looking at himself in the mirror one day, this guy who’d been through so much shit, and went back to the only thing that made sense. Back when Allura was still alive and Honerva was Haggar and they didn’t know about the colony and everything was so much easier.

Lance doesn’t speak for a long time. “Why are you here, Keith?” he says at last, looking down at his hands like he doesn’t recognize them anymore. Keith knows the feeling. Sometimes he looks down at his own hands, sees all the callouses and scars from battle, and doesn’t recognize them, either.

“We’re worried about you, Lance,” he says softly. “You haven’t been answering us. Veronica called Pidge and told her she was concerned.”

“I’m fine,” Lance snaps, a little too loud and a little too sharp.

“No, Lance, you’re not,” Keith sighs, reaching out his foot to touch Lance’s. “Everyone can see it, Lance. We just want to help.”

Lance looks up then, and Keith forces himself not to look away. He forgot how easy it is to read Lance, how much he wears on his sleeve. His eyes aren’t sad anymore, but they’re empty, and Keith thinks that might be worse.

Suddenly, Lance pushes himself to his feet and towards the Lion’s mouth. “I don’t think you can,” he says, and then he’s gone.

 

\--

 

The rest of the day is largely uneventful. The McClains welcome him with open arms, but Lance doesn’t say more than a few words as he shows him around. Keith tries to make conversation, but Lance looks so _exhausted_ of everything that he stops after the first few tries.

Dinner is bustling with energy, but it feels muted, because he’s never eaten a meal with Lance where the other boy wasn’t laughing, wasn’t telling a story, wasn’t _something._ The room is loud, but it feels so quiet. And from the way the McClains keep looking at each other, he’s not the only one who feels that way.

Keith sets up in Lance’s room after dinner, and they don’t speak then, either. Lance reads a book while Keith goes over travel plans for the Coalition. They’re silent all the way until bedtime, and Keith feels choked by the quiet, because it’s so wrong, so opposite of everything he’s come to expect from the beautiful boy across from him.

Lance only breaks his silence in the middle of a nightmare.

Keith is just starting to drift off when he hears the first sound, a quiet, muffled whimper. Keith thinks he’s imagining it at first, and then it happens again, and again. And then Lance starts to speak.

“ _No—‘Llura—there has to be another way—no—”_

Keith realizes a second too late what Lance is dreaming about.

“No,” Lance babbles, face screwed tight. “No, Allura— _please_ —no—you’re too important to me—you’re too—”

Keith rockets out of his makeshift bed towards Lance, careful not to startle him. “Lance,” he calls quietly. “Can you hear me?”

“No—‘Llura, please— _please_ —”

“Lance _,_ ” Keith says again, and places a hesitant hand on his shoulder. Lance jerks back, but his eyes stay closed. “Lance, please, you gotta wake up.”

“ _Allura—”_

“ _Lance,_ ” Keith repeats, firmer now, and shakes his shoulder this time.

And then Lance is looking at him with wide, scared eyes, and then he’s shaking all over, and he’s crying, and Keith just folds him into his chest and holds him until he finally drifts off, and his heart hurts, and he thinks maybe the quiet was better than all this noise.

When they wake up the next morning, neither of them bring it up. But Lance seems less hostile to him, and Keith doesn’t know if that’s an improvement.

 

\--

 

Two days later, Keith wakes up restless.

It’s this gut feeling he gets sometimes, a vestige of long-over battle that burrows deep in his bones. It’s not quite PTSD, not like Shiro’s, but an ingrained reflex that keeps him scanning over crowds for enemies and flinching every time he sees something glint in the distance. It’s what keeps him looking over his shoulder even when he knows he’s safe and what tells him to _move move move_ when things get too peaceful _._

He sighs and pulls himself out of his cot, knowing he won’t be able to sleep for a while. Then he looks over at the bed beside him and realizes Lance is gone.

Keith grabs his knife and moves toward the door. When he was first shown around, he catalogued every noisy and loose floorboard on instinct. Now, it seems to have come in handy.

Lance isn’t in the kitchen, and he’s not in the McClain’s family room, either, or the laundry room. He’s about to go back upstairs and check the other rooms, but then he sees the open patio door.

Keith makes his way over slowly, spotting Lance’s hunched-over silhouette on the porch steps.

“Lance?”

The boy in front of him doesn’t turn around. Keith takes a couple steps closer, cautious. The feeling doesn’t go away.

“Do you ever just think about how big and empty the universe is?” Lance says suddenly, voice thick. “How empty all of it is? Just all this nothing, and—and—just _us._ All this space, and then there’s us. Barely anything.”

Keith sits down beside him slowly. For some reason, Lance seems like a spooked animal; one wrong move and he’ll sprint away. “Lance,” he says, frowning, “we saved the universe.”

“That’s not—” Lance cuts himself off, leaning back and sprawling out over the steps. “Like when we lost our lions. We just floated and floated until we couldn’t tell which way was up or left or right. There’s so much space. I don’t know which way is up, Keith. I don’t—” he cuts himself off with a hiccup, scrubbing his hands over his face roughly. “It feels like I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know who I _am_ anymore. It’s been six months and it still hurts so _much_. I miss her.” His hands clench into fists at his side. “I loved her so much and she just _died_ and I don’t—I don’t—”

Suddenly, he rockets up, frantic, and Keith sees the look in his eyes, knows that kind of reckless, desperate anger intimately, knows what it can do to you. And then Keith is gathering him against his chest, and Lance is crying, and—

He fights it a little at first, thrashing around and trying to beat his fists against Keith’s chest, but Keith just holds him tighter until he gives in and slumps against Keith’s chest. They stay like that for a long while, Lance’s fingers grasping at the collar of Keith’s sleepshirt and Keith’s hands tracing small circles on the tops of his arms, until Lance finally quiets.

“I don’t know if I can get over this, Keith,” he whispers, face still tucked into Keith’s shoulder. “It just hurts so much all the _time._ ”

“You don’t have to do it alone, Lance,” Keith says, pulling back to look at him. Lance is a mess, his eyes puffy and skin blotchy, lips bitten red. Keith feels his heart crack in two. “Lance, we may not be Voltron anymore, but we’re still a team. We’re here to support you, no matter what. You’ve always been there for us. Now it’s time for us to be there for you. Let us help you, Lance.”

Lance looks down. “I didn’t want to bother you. Everyone was doing all these big important things, and they were grieving too, and I just… it didn’t feel important enough.”

“Lance,” Keith says firmly, tilting his chin up so Lance has no choice but to look at him. “You come first. Whenever you need us, we’re here. We may not be able to see you in person, but we’re all just a call away.” Lance doesn’t look convinced. “You’re my right-hand man, Lance. Let me be yours.”

Lance nods the tiniest bit. “Good,” Keith says, and then helps Lance to his feet. “C’mon, let’s get you to sleep.”

 

\--

 

(When they wake up in the morning, neither of them mention the previous night. But Lance is talking a little more at breakfast, and his eyes look a little bit brighter, and Maria mouths _thank you_ at Keith when Lance isn’t looking, her eyes filled with tears, and Keith hopes it means something this time.)

 

\--

 

“Talk to Shiro,” he says to Lance when his week is up. “It’s not the same, but he lost someone, too. He might be able to help more than you think.”

Lance nods and hugs him quickly, the point of his chin digging into Keith’s shoulder. When he pulls back, he’s smiling a little, just barely. “I will.”

When the mouth of the Black Lion closes, he thinks of Maria’s mouthed _thank you_ and Lance’s tiny smile, and lets himself hope that he’s right.

 

\--

 

They stay in contact this time.

He talks to Lance at least once a week now, giving him updates on the Blade’s plans. Lance, in return, tells him about his family and the other paladins. It takes a while, but slowly, Lance starts to come back.

“Ooh,” Lance says suddenly one day, kicking his feet up onto his desk. “Acxa. What’s going on with you and her?”

Keith’s eyebrows go up. “We hang out and spar sometimes. She’s a good fighter.” Keith likes Acxa. She doesn’t feel the need to talk much.

Lance gives him a look. “Dude,” he says, in a very Old Lance kind of way, “last time I saw her, she was totally into you.”

“Lance,” he says, trying his hardest not to laugh, “I’m gay.”

Lance freezes. “Wait, _WHAT_.” He holds up a hand, one finger raised in the universal ‘give me a minute’. His face is full of surprise, and something else Keith can’t quite place. “What? Why didn’t I know this?”

“You have a habit of being an idiot sometimes,” Keith supplies helpfully.

Lance glares at him without any heat. “Very funny, mullet.”

Keith shrugs. “I mean, it’s not like I shouted  _‘hi! I’m super homosexual’_ every time I walked into a room.” Lance snorts. “But I never tried to hide it. I’m pretty sure the others knew. I think Hunk caught me checking out Rolo once. Pidge probably figured it out somehow. Shiro obviously knew already.” He pauses for a second, debating his next words. “Allura just asked me one morning, so I told her.”

He watches Lance’s face carefully, but he doesn’t find the pain he expects. “Bet that was an interesting conversation,” Lance says instead, smiling a little. Keith’s shoulders relax.

“Oh yeah. We’re sparring and all the sudden she goes ‘ _Keith, forgive me for intruding, but you like the men of your species, correct?_ ’ and I say ‘ _yeah’_ and she says, ‘ _that’s nice_ ’, and then we just keep going.” The memory hits him full force, bringing a lump to his throat.

Lance smiles. It’s a little sad this time, but not as much as it used to be. “She sure was something, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah,” Keith whispers back, smiling softly. It hurts, but it’s a good kind of hurt. “She was.”

Lance quirks his lips a little and shakes his head. “Anyways, that’s cool. I guess it explains why you rejected all those girls at the Garrison.”

Keith starts, confused. “What are you talking about?”

Lance looks at him for a second, narrowing his eyes. “Oh my god,” he says, and then repeats himself for emphasis. “Oh my _god,_ Keith. Are you serious?”

“What?” Keith says, rubbing at his shoulder self-consciously.

Lance bursts out laughing. “Keith. _Keith._ My _dude._ Did you seriously not realize all those girls were asking you out?”

“ _What?”_

Lance nearly falls out of his chair. “Keith, like ten girls asked you out. Stacy Abrams tried to ask you to the movies and you told her you were busy. Like three other girls asked you on study dates. How did you not realize that?”

“They did n— _oh._ ” _Jesus fucking Christ,_ he thinks, but he doesn’t say it out loud, because Lance’s Catholicism comes out at weird times. “They were asking me out on a _date?_ I thought Stacy was just asking me about the movie.”

“ _Dios mío_ ,” Lance wheezes, hunched over now, his shoulders shaking. “Keith. Buddy. Pal. I can’t believe this. I thought I was supposed to be the oblivious one here.”

 _You still are, you dummy,_ Keith thinks, but Lance is still laughing, and it’s the most beautiful sound Keith has heard in a while, so he lets it go.

 

\--

 

(Later, he calls Shiro. “Did all those girls really ask me out at the Garrison?” he says by way of greeting.

Shiro looks at him for a long moment, about twelve years past exasperated. “I have not lived through a space war to deal with this,” he says calmly, and then hangs up.)

 

\--

 

Shiro and Hunk visit about a month later, on their way back to Earth. It’s the first time he’s seen either of them in person in months, so when Hunk starts running at him, he forgets to try and be cool and hurries to meet him, pointedly ignoring Zethrid’s snickering. Hunk slams into him and almost knocks him over.

“Keith! _Keith,_ ” Hunk says, grabbing his shoulders and shaking them. “I need to tell you about the last meeting between the Taujeerians and the Puigians. It was _intense._ ” Every week or so, Hunk calls Keith to gossip. Sometimes the others join, but Pidge only likes hearing it if it’s blackmail material-worthy, and Shiro doesn’t like it when Hunk says anything even remotely negative, and Hunk doesn’t want to unload on Lance still. Keith doesn’t mind. He’s petty. He kind of likes gossiping.

“Sounds intriguing,” he says, and pulls back to greet Shiro. “Hey, old man.”

Shiro rolls his eyes. “Hello, you little demon.” But he hugs him anyway with his human arm, and yeah, Keith missed him.

Once Hunk and Shiro have greeted the others, they all step into the Black Lion, setting up on the floor of Black’s cargo hold. Hunk explains the previous day’s diplomatic adventures as they eat, and admittedly, it _is_ very intense, involving an affair in the Puigian royal family, a Taujeerian suitor and also a surprise assassin. Shiro only interrupts twice.

As the story winds down, Hunk steps out to give some of his food to the others because he’s very adamant about sharing, and Shiro clears his throat.

Keith turns toward him. Shiro looks uncharacteristically unsure; normally, his four emotions are calm, disapproval, motherly concern and panic. “So,” he says, and Keith notices he’s fiddling with the sleeves of his jacket. “I uh… I’ve started seeing someone.”

“Shiro!” Keith launches himself across the floor, grabbing Shiro’s shoulders. Shiro lets out an _oof_ and steadies them. “That’s great! Who is it? Do I know him?”

Shiro laughs a little and pats Keith’s back. “You might,” he says, but the usual teasing edge isn’t there. “I don’t want to say yet. Kinda feels like it’ll jinx it?” Keith shrugs. He doesn’t want to push Shiro, knowing that this is a big step for him. “I just… it feels like I’m cheating on Adam, or something. There was so much left unsaid. I just… I don’t know, Keith.”

Keith touches his shoulder. “I’m probably not the best person to be going to advice for,” he says, only a little bit dry. “I got kicked out of the Garrison about a month after they said you were dead, so I don’t know much about what happened to Adam. But I know he tried so hard to find out what happened on Kerberos. I know he still cared about you. And he would want you to be happy, Shiro. I want you to be happy, too.” And he _does._ He wants that more than anything in the world, because Shiro has gone through enough to deserve a thousand lifetimes of happiness, and Keith will be damned if he doesn’t get it.

Shiro smiles at him, softer than he’s seen in a while. “Thank you, Keith,” he says, and there’s something a little hoarse in his voice, and for a second, Keith is scared he’s gonna get sentimental and cry, but then Hunk comes back in saying something about _oh my god, you guys, Kolivan doesn’t know what cake is! Can you believe that?_ And they’re fine. More than fine.

 

\--

 

The next time he sees Lance in person is on Allura’s day.

He’s just come back from the election on Daibazaal, still buzzing from his speech and feeling far more comfortable now that he’s in his normal clothes. Before he left for New Altea, Krolia had ordered him to take a few movements off to see his friends, and he was more than willing to accept; he liked what he was doing, but sometimes it was too much. Some of the Galra seem to revere him, almost, and he doesn’t want to be anyone’s leader anymore.

Lance looks good. He’s still a little sad; Keith can see it in the corners of his eyes, the slight downturn of his lips. But there’s more peace in his face now, and that’s what matters. Lance may not be entirely okay yet, but he will be eventually, and that’s more than enough.

“Let me guess,” Lance says, once Keith finishes telling the others about Daibazaal. “They asked you to be their leader, and you said no.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Keith says, shrugging.

“Classic Keith,” Lance says, and he looks so much like the seventeen-year-old boy who got whisked up into space that something catches in Keith’s throat.

The table laughs. Keith laughs along with them. There’s a feeling in his chest he hasn’t known for a while, bright and warm and lovely. After a second, he realizes it’s _happiness._

(They take a picture when they finish dinner, that same happiness hanging around. Keith decides to keep it in his Lion, where he can see it every time he looks up. He wants to remember it forever.)

 

\--

 

The Lions wake up in the middle of the night, and they all rush out to see them. They’ve worked fine since the battle ended, perfectly operational, but it’s like they’re muted. Now, Keith feels the energy of the entire galaxy running through his veins. He hasn’t felt this alive in months.

It’s beautiful. A hundred million glowing lights, a special cosmic memorial filled with the gratitude of the universe. He can feel the power of it around him as the Lions take off into the sky, quintessence trailing them. Somewhere, in all of it, he senses Allura.

Lance is right beside him, marks glowing and a serene smile on his face. He hasn’t looked this happy since their trip on the Atlas began, and it makes Keith’s breath catch. He’s every bit as beautiful as the lights around them. More, maybe. Keith thinks sometimes that Lance is the most beautiful thing in the universe.

Keith falls asleep that night with Lance’s smile on his mind.

 

\--

 

When they part ways, it feels too soon.

He says goodbye to Pidge first, and then Hunk. Hunk cries openly and Pidge pretends like she doesn’t as she reminds him to come and see Chip. Then Lance hugs him goodbye, the planes of him familiar and warm, and it feels a little too much like home for Keith, so he has to force himself to pull away. Over Lance’s shoulder, he sees Shiro tuck his lips into his mouth to hide a smile. Keith fights the urge to stab him.

“You’ll come visit for a few days, yeah?” Lance says softly, still holding onto Keith’s sleeve. His eyes are so full of hope that Keith feels himself blush.

 _Friends,_ he reminds himself. _You’re just friends, Kogane._ Somewhere in the back of his mind, the Black Lion snorts.

“Said I was going to, didn’t I?” Keith answers, shaking his head fondly. “Just gonna spend some time with Shiro first.”

“Copy that,” Lance says, turning away. “Catch you later, samurai.”

“Bye, Lance,” he calls back, still smiling. He knows he’s got that soft look on his face, but he can’t help it.

When he turns around, Shiro’s smirking. “Shut up before I stab you, Bucky Barnes,” Keith hisses, starting back towards Black.

Shiro coughs to hide his laugh. “I thought those two years on the space whale mellowed you out.”

Keith raises an eyebrow as Black opens. Yeah, he matured a lot on the space whale, but he doesn’t think anything will be able to take the demon out of him. “Now _that’s_ funny.”

 

\--

 

(Krolia and Kolivan become the Galran representatives, just like he thought they would. He’s glad for them, but it also means he’s not really sure what his role is in the rebuilding anymore.)

 

\--

 

Unfortunately, Keith finds out pretty quickly that staying with Shiro has its downsides. One of which involves finding out that your adoptive brother’s secret boyfriend is Curtis from the Atlas in the absolute worst way possible.

“Hey Shiro, I—OH MY GOD.”

Keith quickly turns around and shuts the door behind him, eyes firmly shut. The forms he had in his hand flutter to the ground. Inside the room, there’s a thud and a startled scream. Keith’s money is on Curtis screaming and Shiro falling onto the floor. “Oh my god,” he whispers again, banging his head against the counter. What’s that thing Lance says? _I desire the forbidden drink?_ Yeah, that’s it. He wants the forbidden drink. He wants death.

After a minute or so, the door opens. Keith turns around carefully, hand still over his face. “I’m decent, Keith,” Shiro says, pinching the bridge of his nose. At least Keith’s not the only one who feels awkward about this. “You really need to knock, you know.”

“I will now knock. Every time I enter a room I believe you to be in.” Shiro sighs. Keith translates it to _I am too young for this shit_. “Hey Shiro, quick question. Can you literally just kill me right now?”

“Afraid not,” Shiro says, amused. “Look, Keith, I’m sorry you walked in on us, but you really need to learn to knock. Both of us need our privacy.”

“It’s two pm, Shiro, I’m _sorry_ , I didn’t think you’d be _getting it on_ with _Curtis_ in the middle of the goddamn afternoon.”

“We had the afternoon off,” Shiro says, sounding vaguely offended, and then sighs again. “Look, Keith… at least I don’t have to worry about trying to give you The Talk anymore?” (Shiro has been trying to give Keith The Talk for about five years now. Every time he starts, Keith runs out of the room. At first it was because he truly didn’t want to hear it, but then it just became a game.)

Keith snorts. “You’re about four years too late to tell me about the birds and the bees, Shiro.” He pauses. “Or is it the bees and the bees in this case?”

“Only you would focus on the semantics of—wait, _WHAT_?”

Shiro looks stricken. Keith recognizes the Concerned Mother face immediately. “Forms you need to sign are on the table,” he says quickly, already heading for the door. “Gottago _BYE_.”

“ _Keith! Get back here!”_

 

\--

 

He tells Lance almost as soon as he gets out of Shiro’s range.

**To: Lance McLame**

_lance oh my god_

_i just walked in on shiro with curtis_

_i want to die_

His phone beeps back almost immediately.

**From: Lance McLame**

_oh my g o d KEITH!!!! holy shit!!!!_

_if u need a place to get over the trauma u can come over a few days early?_

Keith grins.

**To: Lance McLame**

_sounds like a plan, sharpshooter._

 

\--

 

(Shiro texts him about twenty times over the next day, each of them increasingly frantic but seemingly attempting to sound calm.

**From: Robocop**

_Keith???? Come back please_

_Look, I promise I won’t ask you a lot of questions. I just wanna talk_

_Keith, please don’t ignore me_

_Why didn’t you tell me????_

_Oh my god do I know him??? Was he at the Garrison???_

_Keith, please tell me you used protection_

_KEITH???_

Keith laughs the whole way to Lance’s.)

 

\--

 

Lance is waiting when he steps out of Black, his arms open. Keith walks into them gladly, burying his face in Lance’s shoulder. “Missed you,” he says before he can stop himself, because Lance is too warm and too familiar.

He feels Lance laugh. “Missed you too, mullet.”

 

\--

 

“What was growing up with Shiro like?” Lance asks later that night as they lay in the field next to Lance’s house. Neither of them could sleep, so staring out at the stars seemed like the next best option.

Keith turns his head to face Lance. Lance is already looking back, his marks glowing softly in the darkness. “You’ve listened to me yap a whole lot about my family,” he says. “I wanna hear about yours.”

Keith is glad the darkness hides his blush.

“I mean, it was different,” he starts, looking away. “I’d been in the foster system for a few years at that point. No one was bad to me or anything, but they didn’t seem to care about me much.”

“That sucks,” Lance offers.

Keith swallows, forcing himself to keep his eyes on the stars. “Not really. A lot of people had it worse than me.” There’s Shiro’s voice again, telling him to stop dismissing his own feelings.

“Hey,” Lance says, nudging his arm. “Still sucks, Keith.”

“It did,” he allows. “But Shiro… he cared. He really did. And I didn’t understand why. I was this scrawny, angry kid who stole his car, and he just… cared about me. He believed in me. No one had done that before.” For all Keith complains about Shiro, he’s gone to the ends of the world to save him, and he’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Lance is watching him now, and his face is too soft, too open, so Keith switches tracks before his brain can get any ideas. “Shiro is a human disaster.”

Lance snorts. “If you’d said that to me on the Castleship, I wouldn’t have believed you. I can sorta see that now, though.”

Keith chuckles. “He tried to hide it when we were paladins, because he wanted us to see him as a strong and respectable leader and not the guy who panicked for a solid fifteen minutes about losing his gloves before he realized he was _wearing them._ ”

“Wow,” Lance says, grinning. “Yeah, I think seeing that would’ve probably knocked some of the hero worship out of me.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “Please, don’t hero-worship that man. I once heard him wake up in a panic because he thought he was missing class, realize he had graduated already, and then, a second later, scream ‘ _FUCK! I’M THE TEACHER!_ ’”

Lance rolls away from him, belly-laughing. The marks on his face glow a little brighter.

“Adam helped a lot,” Keith says, letting out a long breath. “I think Curtis does, too. I’m glad they’re together.”

Lance turns back to face him. “Do you miss him? Adam?”

Keith sighs. “Yeah,” he says quietly. He’s never said it out loud, because he always wanted to be strong for Shiro. But losing him had hurt, too. “We weren’t as close as Shiro and I, but he was like family to me.”

“I’m sorry,” Lance says softly, taking his hand. Keith panics for only the briefest of moments this time.

“It’s okay,” he says, squeezing back. It isn’t okay, not really, but it has to be. “He died saving the universe. It’s how he would’ve wanted to go.”

He sees Lance nod a little out of the corner of his eye. “Hey, Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you… do you ever think about dating?”

Keith tries to keep his facial expression as neutral as possible. “Someday, maybe. I don’t know.” He pauses. “Maybe before I would’ve been fine just meeting someone, but I think I’d need a connection now. There’s so much we’ve been through that I just… I don’t know if I’ll find that.” _Also, I’m desperately in love with you._

Lance nods again, closing his eyes. Keith hesitates for a moment. “What about you?”

Lance doesn’t move. “Veronica and Luis tried to set me up on a couple dates. It’s too early, I think. I don’t know. Maybe it always will be.” Finally, he opens his eyes. “I think I’m like you. I’d need a connection. After Allura… I don’t know.”

Keith realizes they’re still holding hands.

“C’mon,” Lance says after a second, getting to his feet and pulling Keith up by their joined hands. As soon as his feet are on the ground, Lance releases Keith’s hand, heading back up toward the house. “If you’re staying here, Mama’s gonna put you to work. We have a lot of stuff to do tomorrow.”

Keith follows him. He thinks sometimes that he would follow Lance anywhere.

 

\--

 

Keith stays with Lance for another week. They spend the last day in this little cave lookout by Lance’s house, just talking and reminiscing on the past.

“Do you miss Voltron?” Keith asks suddenly, shifting a little on his side until he’s facing Lance. They’d just finished talking about the game of _Monsters and Mana_ Keith missed, and they’d both been laughing, but now Keith watches the smile wipe off Lance’s face.

“Yeah,” he whispers, mouth turning down. “I do. Not the fighting, though. I’ve done enough combat for a couple lifetimes. I can’t do it anymore.”

Keith nods, biting his lip. “Yeah, I know.” Keith used to think he was meant for battle. Now, not so much. He’s seen too many people die, friends and foes. But Keith also knows that the Red Lion stays put on the same patch of grass in Lance’s yard most of the time; Lance only uses him to go to New Altea or when he’s called to the Garrison. “I just… I wonder sometimes if this is enough for you. I know you love it here, but you loved flying, too. You loved being a Paladin.”

Lance’s mouth snaps open, ready to spit fire, and then he just… doesn’t. “I don’t know, Keith,” he says hesitantly, staring up at the ceiling above them. “I don’t know if I can. It’s hard to look at my armor sometimes. Even being in Red… it hurts.”

Keith knows. He knows how much emotion the Lions hold, knows they grieved with Blue when Allura died. Knows they miss her, too. The first time he stepped back in Black, it hit him like a tidal wave, and he had to try his hardest not to cry.

“Well,” he says softly, still looking at Lance, “if you ever change your mind, you know where to find me. Even if you just need someone to try and outfly.” Lance snorts, just barely. Keith smiles. “Whenever you’re ready, I’m here. And if you never are, that’s fine too.”

Lance turns to face him then, reaching over to grab his hand. He’s always worn his heart on his sleeve, too open and too trusting, but the full force of the gratitude on his face almost makes Keith pull back. “Thanks, samurai.”

“Anytime, sharpshooter,” he whispers back, and he means it.

 

\--

 

Keith decides to make one quick pitstop before leaving Earth: the Garrison. More specifically, Curtis’ quarters.

“Keith?” the main in question asks when he opens the door, looking more than a little confused. “What are you doing here?”

Keith just shrugs. “Can I come in?”

Curtis swings the door open wider, stepping back to reveal one of the cleanest living spaces Keith’s ever seen. Huh. Maybe that’s why Shiro likes him. No chaos. “Of course.”

He follows Curtis over to the dining table. Though Curtis has always been friendly, there’s a certain stiffness to his shoulders now, like he knows what’s going to happen. Good. Keith likes it when people hold a healthy amount of fear towards him.

“Was there something you wanted to talk about?” Curtis asks, trying for a smile.

“Yeah,” he says, and leans back, aiming for the height of nonchalance. Suddenly, he leans forward, bracing his arms on the table. “Look, Curtis. I like you. I think you’re a good guy. I’m glad Shiro has you.” Dropping all pretenses, he reaches down and pulls his Marmora blade of his belt, setting it on the table in front of him. Curtis, for his part, does not flinch back, though his eyes do widen. “But he’s been through a whole lot these past few years. He has seen things and done things that neither of us will ever be able to fully understand. He has been through enough pain. It would be a real shame if he were to get his heart broken again.” He leans back again, placing his hand the hilt of his blade. “Are we clear?”

“Yes,” Curtis squeaks out, sounding terrified. Then he takes a deep breath, swallows once, and holds out a hand. Keith raises an eyebrow as Curtis meets his eyes, refusing to look away. “I plan on sticking around, Keith.”

Keith stares at him for a moment longer, and then takes his hand, smiling. “Good,” he says, and pushes his chair back, legs squeaking against the floor. Then he grabs his knife, tucks it back into his belt, and turns towards the door. “Have a good day, Curtis.”

As soon as he’s out the door, he sends a picture of an old woman holding two guns with the caption _damn it feels good to be a gangsta_ to the _This Voltron Can Fit So Many Memes In It!_ group-chat Pidge set up a couple months ago.

**From: Mr LanceMan**

_asdfjkl keith???_

Two minutes later, the group-chat pings again.

**From: Space Papa**

_Did you just threaten my boyfriend like a fucking mafia don?_

**From: Birb**

_keith holy S H I T you’re my HERO_

**From: Space Papa**

_LANGUAGE_ _Pigde_

**From: Birb**

_pigde_

**From: Mr LanceMan**

_pigde_

**From: Hunkthehunk**

_Pigde_

**From: Kogayne**

_pigde_

**From: Space Papa**

_Keith??? You too???_

Keith thinks about Shiro’s betrayed face and laughs for approximately two hours, rejecting every single attempt Shiro makes to call him.

 

_\--_

 

Back on Earth, when he’d said he wanted to do something to help the planets that were still struggling, Lance suggested turning the Blade into a humanitarian organization. Krolia and Kolivan jump at the idea. They’re too busy with Coalition work to do much with the Blade these days, so they cede control to him. Thankfully, he doesn’t mind this leadership so much.

They spend the next phoeb figuring out logistics. Krolia and Kolivan pop by whenever they get a chance, offering suggestions. Keith doesn’t know many of the other Blades that well, so he chooses Acxa, Ezor and Zethrid as his lieutenants. He’s grown close to them over the last year or so; Acxa’s his favourite, and Zethrid still scares him a little sometimes, but he trusts all of them. It’s weird to think they were enemies a couple years ago.

He’s in the middle of discussing flight plans when he hears an all-too-familiar voice outside the room. “Hold up! Red Paladin coming through!”

Keith stops mid-sentence, grinning, as the door flies open and Lance pops his head through. “Fancy seeing you here, samurai. I’m gonna kidnap your space wolf until you’re done.” Right on time, Kosmo pops out of nowhere and knocks Lance flat to the ground, causing an impressive amount of noise along the way. Keith distinctly hears a yelp from Lance as the door closes.

When he turns back to the former generals, Acxa’s coughing into her hand to cover her laughter, Zethrid looks far too smug for her own good, and Ezor looks positively ecstatic. “ANYWAY,” he says before they can say something, a little too loud for the small room. “I feel like we should do an initial test run on a planet nearby that doesn’t need a whole lot of help. Any suggestions?”

The rest of the meeting seems to drag on, although Keith knows it’s only been a few minutes. He tries to wrap up quickly, but apparently it doesn’t work, because after another minute Zethrid rolls her eyes and says, “just go see your boyfriend, Kogane.”

He’s pretty sure Lance isn’t at the door anymore, but he still hisses, _“he’s not my boyfriend, Zethrid, Jesus.”_ Then he straightens up, dismisses them with whatever dignity he has left, and leaves the room.

Lance is waiting near Black, Red looming behind him. He’s wearing his armor again for first time since they stepped off the Atlas, and Keith tries his hardest to not make a big deal out of it, to pretend like he doesn’t notice. “Hey,” he says when Keith stops in front of him, pulling him into a hug. Somehow, Keith still feels the warmth of Lance’s hands on his back.

“Hey,” Keith says back, smiling before he can stop himself.

Lance mirrors his smile when he pulls back, a little crooked. “Went to New Altea and thought I’d stop by,” he says before Keith can ask. Lance has been going to New Altea to help out more and more, and it seems like it’s good for him. “Actually, I was wondering if, um.” Lance folds his arms over his chest, like he’s trying to copy Keith’s normal sullenness. “Can I take you up on that offer for a race?”

 

\--

 

Keith had forgotten how amazing flying feels when there’s no destination behind it.

He can hear Lance hollering through the comm link, voice filled with glee. With space whipping past, the two of them navigating sharply around moons and asteroids, this moment is the freest Keith’s felt in a long while. It’s been so long since he’s flown just because he can, not because he has to.

Lance keeps pace with him the entire time, not the least bit rusty. He’s unrecognizable from when all this space mess first happened. Back then, he had the raw talent, but relied on cockiness instead of training or refinement. Now, he flies like Red’s an extension of his body, weaving through space effortlessly.

 _Stop ogling,_ Black grumbles. _Fly._ Keith, once again, tells him to shut up.

Finally, they decide to stop to rest on an abandoned moon a couple planets from Daibazaal, and climb up on top of Black like they have so many times before, Kosmo at their heels. It feels so natural, so familiar, like they’re paladins again and taking a minute to just _be._ Keith and Lance. The leader of Voltron and his right hand.

Lance knocks his shoulder playfully, grinning at him. His face is flushed, eyes shining almost as bright as the blue marks on his skin. “Guess it really is ‘ _Lance and Keith, neck and neck_ ’ after all, huh?” he says, lowering his voice for effect.

Keith shakes his head fondly. “We were never rivals, Lance.”

“I know,” Lance says, lips quirking. “The whole rivalry thing was stupid. I was jealous because people always compared me to you, and I took it out on you. I was stupid.”

“You kinda were,” Keith agrees, trying not to laugh at the mock-outraged look on Lance’s face. “I’m glad we’re past that now.”

“Me too,” Lance says, slinging an arm around Keith’s shoulders. Keith leans into him little, praying he’s not blushing. They’re both silent for a second, just looking out at the stars around them. Then, “hey, Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” Lance says, and he’s completely serious now, voice dripping with sincerity. Keith swallows. He’s learned to deal with most versions of Lance, but this one, the honest, open one, always manages to trip him up. “Not just for this. You’ve done so much for me this past year. I don’t think I can ever thank you enough.”

Keith wraps an arm around Lance. There’s a twist of sadness in his smile now, but he knows Lance can’t see it. “That’s what friends are for, aren’t they?” he says, even though it breaks his heart a little. Friends. He’d accepted it a long time ago and it was fine, but it still hurt sometimes. “I’d do whatever it took, Lance.”

 _That’s kinda gay,_ a little voice that sounds like Pidge says in his mind, but he ignores it. Right now, it’s just him and Lance, staring out the infinity in front of them, and it’s perfect.

 

\--

 

The plans for the Blade start to fall into place.

The closer the first mission gets, the more anxious Keith becomes. He’s not good with people, never has been. War was his specialty; diplomacy is not. It was always the others, always Allura, or Shiro, or Hunk. Even Lance, because when he wasn’t flirting with everything in sight, people gravitated to him. Lance could always pull people into his orbit without trying.

A small, terrible voice in the back of his head says _ask him. Ask him to come with you._ But Keith doesn’t know if Lance is ready for that yet. Lance just started flying again; going on a mission, even a humanitarian one, is a huge leap.

Keith spends a couple days mulling it over before he gives in.

“Keith!” Lance says when the call connects, grinning wide. He looks a little flustered, like he’d rushed into frame.

Keith smiles on instinct, waving a little. “Hey, Lance.”

The talk a little bit, just catching up, before Keith decides to bring it up. “Hey, can I ask you something?” Keith says, clearing his throat. Below Black’s console, he picks at a loose thread in his gloves, trying to soothe his nerves.

“Sure, man,” Lance says immediately, leaning back. “What’s up?”

“The Blades and I have our first humanitarian mission next week,” Keith starts, his words jumbling together. Lance notices, because his brow creases a little. “I was wondering if you wanted to come with us.”

Lance freezes.

“Keith,” he says after a second, hesitant, “I don’t know.”

“Do you want to?” Keith asks carefully, watching for his reaction.

Lance draws his lips into his mouth, looking down. “Yes,” he says. “I just don’t know if I’m ready yet.”

Keith nods. “That’s alright,” he says. “Like I said, Lance, whenever you’re ready.”

Lance meets his eyes again, smiling a little. “Thanks, Keith.” He looks so soft like this, so sweet, his hair wild and eyes crinkled at the corners.

“Well,” Keith says, swallowing around the sudden lump in his throat, “if you change your mind, we leave for Arus in ten quintants. I’ll be at my Lion at oh-nine-hundred.”

(Keith walks out of the base in exactly ten days and finds Lance waiting for him on Red’s paw, grinning. Keith can’t help the stupid smile that spreads across his face. Behind him, Zethrid snorts.

 _Big gay,_ Black supplies helpfully.

“You came,” he says to Lance, offering a hand to pull him up.

“Guess I did,” Lance answers teasingly, taking Keith’s hand and pulling him into a hug. “You guys ready to rock and roll?”

Keith feels a heavy sense of déjà vu when everyone groans in unison, but they all climb into their ships and take off for Arus.)

(The mission is a success. Keith tries to keep on eye on Lance, just in case, but it turns out he doesn’t need to. He’s a natural, flitting between different Blades when things get awkward and sparking conversations with the natives. Lance makes it almost effortless by example, and as the Blades copy him, they slowly leave their warrior personas behind.

“Thanks,” Keith says when they leave, because he means it, because he’s not sure he could have done this by himself. “I mean it, Lance. Thank you.”

“I should be thanking _you,_ samurai,” Lance says, laughing a little. There’s something odd about his face, flushed and bright. But it doesn’t look like sadness, and it kinda makes his chest feel weird, so Keith doesn’t question it.)

 

\--

 

Keith doesn’t see all of the paladins again until Allura’s day. It feels so wonderfully familiar, sitting around that table with his friends—his found family—around him, catching up on the homes they’ve built since they last saw each other.

He catches Lance’s eyes as Pidge launches into the story of a prank she pulled on Matt, both of them laughing, and his heart flutters a little.

 _No_ , he decides. It feels like coming home.

“To Allura,” Coran says when the conversation dies down, raising his glass.

“To Allura,” they all echo, and it’s bittersweet, but it doesn’t ache so much anymore.

 

\--

 

Shiro asks him about a week or two later to drop by Earth when he can, but he gets so caught up in his work that he completely forgets until Krolia marches into base, throws him over her shoulder and carries him into the Black Lion, telling him not to return until he’s talked to Shiro. Black, apparently, is a huge traitor, because he opens his mouth immediately to let her in. Keith catches sight of his lieutenants and Acxa’s communicator blinking red just as Black’s mouth closes. Great.

He sighs and resigns himself to his fate, knowing the others are more than capable of managing if something comes up. Instead, he types out a message to Shiro to let him know he’s headed to Earth, and then, after a second’s hesitation, pulls up his chat with Lance.

**To: Sharpshooter**

_Coming down to Earth for a little bit. Can I drop by your place in a day or two?_

Almost immediately, a video chat request pops up. Keith hits _accept_ , and Lance’s face appears on Black’s windshield, already mid-word.

“—eith! When are you—” Lance stops almost as suddenly as he started, staring at Keith for a long moment. “You changed your hair,” he says finally, scratching at the back of his neck.

“Oh,” Keith says dumbly, reaching up to tug on the short ponytail he forgot he’d put his hair in. Lance makes a small sound like he’s choking. “Yeah. It was pissing me off.”

Lance keeps staring. Keith’s not used to people looking at him like that, like he’s the only thing that exists in the entire world. It unnerves him, having that much attention. Finally, Lance shakes his head. “Guess I can’t call you mullet anymore, can I?” he says, laughing a little.

“You haven’t called me mullet in a while,” Keith points out.

Lance coughs. If Keith looks close, it almost looks like Lance is blushing. “It’s what’s inside that counts,” he says, then smirks. “And your personality has a mullet.”

Keith scoffs, but lets it go. “So are you okay with me staying at your house for a few days?”

Lance shifts a little, the sun behind him brightening. “Actually, I’m headed up to the Garrison in a few hours. Shiro asked me to give a lecture to some of the cadets.”

“Really?” Lance nods, and Keith leans close to the screen, grinning. “Lance, that’s great!” He doesn’t wanna go full Shiro Proud, but Lance has largely shirked public appearances since the war ended. He’s been doing more and more stuff on New Altea, and every once and a while Keith asks him along on a particularly challenging mission, but he’s always refused to do anything on Earth. The fact that he’s willing to share his experiences on Earth now is a huge step, and damn it, Keith is proud of him.

Lance’s answering smile is shy. “Yeah, Shiro’s been trying to get me more involved at the Garrison. I’m looking forward to it. Wanna pass my infinite wisdom onto the next generation.”

“There it is.”

Lance laughs. “I’ll probably get there before you, but you’re welcome to come back to my house with me after. I know Sylvio misses you.” Keith rolls his eyes. Sylvio, who is six now, apparently thinks Keith is the coolest person in the universe, and will not be dissuaded no matter how hard Lance tries to convince him otherwise.

“Sounds like a plan,” Keith says. “See you in a day?”

“Yeah,” Lance confirms, and does this ridiculous little salute he probably saw in a movie and thought looked cool. “See you later, samurai.”

Then the screen goes black, and Keith is left with the distinct feeling that something just shifted into place.

 _Ridiculous,_ Black says. Kosmo barks. Keith gets the feeling he’s laughing at him, too.

 

\--

 

As it turns out, Shiro wanted to see Keith because he’s planning on proposing to Curtis.

“ _WHAT?!_ ” Keith shrieks as soon as the words are out of Shiro’s mouth. Shiro winces at the pitch, probably very glad that his boyfriend left the apartment a couple hours before. “Shiro, are you serious?”

Shiro nods, pulling a small velvet box out of his pocket and flipping it open. Keith stares. He doesn’t know much about engagement rings, but the black band looks nice, a single white stone in the middle.

“So, uh,” Shiro says, clearing his throat. Keith looks up and catches the anxiety on his face. “Does that mean I should do it, or—”

Keith pulls him into a noogie that turns into a full-body tackle. “Oh my god, Shiro, _yes_ , I’m so proud of you—”

Shiro shoves him off, laughing. “Don’t get all sentimental on me,” he says, and then squints. “Are you crying?”

“No?” he reaches up and finds that he indeed is crying. “Oh. Guess I am.” Shiro snorts and draws him into a headlock, ruffling his hair. “Oh my god, Shiro, can you _not?_ ”

When he’s finally released, Keith turns towards his older brother, grabbing his shoulders. “Shiro, ask him. Curtis is pathetically in love with you.” It’s true; both of them get this ridiculously lovesick look on their faces whenever they look at the other. The last time he visited Earth, Keith and Matt trailed them through the halls, overexaggerating their facial expressions and pretending to swoon. Pidge got the whole thing on tape. Keith thinks it might be the funniest thing he’s ever done.

Shiro still looks unsure. “Shiro,” Keith says softly, because he knows what his brother’s thinking, knows that sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with the arena tattooed on the back of his eyelids or the clone’s words on his tongue, and thinks his life now must be a dream. “You deserve to be happy. Ask him. He’s going to say yes.”

 

\--

 

Keith is standing in Pidge’s workshop, scoffing at whatever Matt’s saying about Keith stealing his old look, when he spots Lance.

“Lance!” he cries, and leaves Matt mid-sentence, hurrying over to him. Lance is already waiting with his arms open, a smile dancing on his lips. He’s wearing the old Voltron uniform the Garrison gave him when they first came back, and the blue of Lance’s jacket matches his marks perfectly.

“Hey, man,” Lance says, only the tiniest bit amused. Behind them, Keith hears Matt say _wow_ like that stupid video he likes so much. “Missed you too.”

“You ready to go?” Lance asks, waving at the Holt siblings. “Mama said she was gonna make a special dinner for you.”

“ _Ropa vieja_ and _maduros_?” he asks hopefully, only stumbling over the words a little. Lance nods, looking fond.

When Keith turns back to the Holts, they both look like they’re trying not to laugh. “You have fun now, kids,” Matt says as Keith hugs him, and Keith punches him in the shoulder. Matt pretends like it hurts.

“You two are the most couple-y non-couple I’ve ever seen,” Pidge mutters when she hugs him, sounding half-fond and half-exasperated. Keith is confused, but he still blushes all the way down his neck.

(When the Red and Black lions lift off into the sky, Pidge sends the group-chat a picture of a weird white creature sitting on a chair with its arms held open wide, and Keith, not for the first time, feels like he’s missing something.)

 

\--

 

It’s almost surprising how easily he fits into Lance’s family, and how quickly they accept him as one of their own. Maria fusses over him and whether he’s eating enough; Marco and Luis tease both him and Lance (most of it’s in rapid Spanish, but he catches the words _novio_ and _asere_ , and Lance looks flushed); and Veronica asks Keith for incriminating stories on her brother, and if he can bring Acxa with him the next time he visits. (Keith files that last one away for later, glad to have something to use against Acxa for once.)

He sits back for most of it, watching as Lance interacts with his family, laughing and talking, and as Kosmo runs around the table begging for scraps, and he feels at home.

Daibazaal is familiar, and it’s where he spends most of his time, but this… this feels like where he belongs.

 

\--

 

“Hey, Keith?” Lance says one night, his voice breaking through the dark.

“Yeah?”

“How did… how did you know you liked guys?”

_Oh._

Keith draws in a sharp breath and rolls over to face Lance. They’re back in the field again, and Lance keeps his eyes trained on the sky above him, like he hasn’t said anything at all. “I…” Keith stops for a second, considers himself. “I don’t know. I never had any interest in girls. Just liked looking at guys. Didn’t really realize it was an actual thing I could be until Shiro started going out with Adam.” He pauses again, wondering if he’s going too far. “Shiro is probably a better person to ask, to be honest.”

“I already did,” Lance says, lips twitching. “He told me that he realized when Matt pointed out that every time a cute guy smiled at him, he stopped functioning.” Yeah, that sounds like Shiro.

Keith’s still looking at him, his heart pounding. Finally, Lance lets out a long breath, and says, “I think I’m bi.”

Keith has heard more Earth-shattering things, and the confession is admittedly far less shocking than it would’ve been if Lance had said it three years ago, but it still takes him by surprise. “Cool,” he says, trying to keep his voice as level as possible, as if the tiny voice in his head isn’t currently screaming _YOU HAVE A CHANCE._ He doesn’t know how much Lance told Shiro, but Keith knows it had taken a lot of trust for him to come out to Shiro all those years ago, a lot of messy feelings and peeking out of closets and fear, and he doesn’t want to mess this up for Lance. “Welcome to the non-straight club, my young padawan.”

Lance bursts out laughing. “God, Keith, could you be any dorkier?” But then he’s turning around, face all soft and warm and happy, and Keith’s brain just goes _yikes._

 _Houston_ , a voice that sounds suspiciously like Matt shouts in his head, _we have a YIKES_.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks carefully, reaching out and touching Lance’s shoulder. It’s kind of awkward when both of them are lying down, but he manages.

Lance draws his lips into his mouth, biting a little too hard. Keith flicks his nose to get him to stop, and Lance gives him a disapproving look, but relaxes. “I don’t know,” he says after a while. “I always just… saw girls. I didn’t really think about anything else. It never occurred to me that there _could_ be anything else. And then there was Allura, and that was it. It was just her.” When he smiles it’s more wistful than sad, the scar of the wound instead of the wound itself. “But I just… I don’t know anymore. Sometimes you just see something a little different one day and realize maybe it’s been there all along, you know? Or some person.” He smiles suddenly, a little self-deprecating, because that’s what Lance has always done when he doesn’t know what to do with himself. “Hey, maybe my hero worship for Shiro was a little more homoerotic than I thought, too. Have you _seen_ the guns on that man?”

“Oh my god, Lance, that’s my _brother,_ ” he hisses, making to push himself away from Lance, but Lance just grabs his hands and holds him in place, giggling. “Don’t ever say that to me again.”

“Duly noted, team leader,” Lance says, still laughing. His marks are lit up, and he looks so, so beautiful in the moonlight. Keith’s heart squeezes.

They don’t speak again for a little while, but shift on their backs, looking back up at the sky. They’re still holding hands in the space between them, and Lance keeps tracing circles onto Keith’s thumb with his own, and Keith feels like his body is made of electricity.

“Keith?”

“Yeah?” Keith says, still looking up at this sky, because something about this moment feels too fragile, too intimate. Like if he looks at Lance, it’ll all fall away.

“Do you think you can love two people at once?”

Keith is probably the worst authority on love Earth has ever seen, but he decides to try anyways. “I think you can love different people for different reasons but in equal ways. But that doesn’t mean any of those loves are lesser than the rest.”

Lance squeezes his hand and doesn’t say anything else. And for the first time, Keith thinks he’s starting to understand.

 

\--

 

Keith goes back to space. Lance splits his time between his farm, the Garrison and New Altea fairly evenly now, because Shiro’s managed to convince him to teach a couple classes and Lance, to no one’s surprise, loves telling the cadets what he’s learned. But he visits Daibazaal a lot more now, too. He doesn’t come on missions that much anymore, mostly because the Blades are starting to get the hang of the whole humanitarian thing, but sometimes Keith finds him waiting when he comes back, a soft smile in his face. Zethrid says it’s disgusting. Ezor says it’s adorable. Acxa just rolls her eyes and smiles a little bit, because she doesn’t really have a leg to stand on anymore. Keith gave her Veronica’s number when he came back from Earth, and they’ve been talking a lot recently. As it turns out, they both have things for McClains.

Sometimes, Lance stops by just to say hi on his way back to Earth. Other times, they go back to Keith’s quarters and talk for hours. Lance fills him in on the Garrison, on the new Voltron vehicles and Kinkade’s new documentary and his and Matt’s meme adventures (apparently, they’ve bonded over being two of the most ridiculous people Keith knows). Keith tells him about all the planets they visit, and all the times Krolia and Kolivan accidentally freak him out with their weirdly silent footsteps, and sometimes they gossip about Acxa and Veronica, too.

Sometimes, they just lay next to each other, sides touching from shoulder to him. Sometimes, Lance lays his head in Keith’s lap, eyes staring up at him as he talks, and it always makes Keith blush, but he never looks away.

He’s pretty sure he knows now. Knows Lance knows, too, but they’re both waiting for the final piece to click into place. Keith can wait. Lance is more than worth waiting for.

 

\--

 

(Shiro proposes to Curtis. He calls Keith on the way to another mission to tell him, his whole face lit up, and Keith has never been happier for his brother, because he deserves it. Shiro deserves everything in the goddamn world and Keith is so glad he’s getting it. Black doesn’t say anything this time, but Keith knows he feels the same.

Then Shiro asks him to be his best man, and both of them cry, and Keith doesn’t know what that means except he has to, like, plan a bachelor party and write a speech, but he’s grateful. He’s really, really glad he stole Shiro’s car that day.)

 

\--

 

When Keith and Lance finally do kiss, it feels like the culmination of something inevitable. They’re sitting on Black’s paw by the cliff near Lance’s house, staring out at the distant streaks of light passing by. Lance looks at him, and Keith looks back, and they both lean in, and in a supernova brighter than the meteor shower in front of them, they meet.

Keith feels like he’s been waiting years for this moment, but there is no frenzy, no desperation. Kissing Lance feels like the sunset after a hard-won victory, the warmth of Shiro’s miso soup, the soft notes of the Galran lullaby Krolia used to sing him. It’s beautifully familiar, somehow, like this is always how it was supposed to have been. Keith thinks they’ve been just missing each other for years, and this is the first time they connect. It won’t be the last.

“Hi,” he says when Lance pulls back, one hand thumbing over the scar on his cheek. His marks glow bright now, just like the rest of him.

“Hi,” Lance whispers back, eyes crinkling at the corners. God, he’s beautiful. Keith is on top of the world.

“Been waiting for you to catch up,” he says, and Lance laughs, loud and happy and free.

“Took me a while,” Lance says, and takes Keith’s hands, bringing them up to his mouth to kiss each finger. Keith can’t help the giggle that escapes him. “Wanted to make sure I was ready. But I think you’ve always been what I needed.”

When they kiss again, pressing smiles against each other’s mouths, Keith knows it’s just the start of something beautiful. Keith and Lance. Red and Blue. The two of them against the universe.

 

\--

 

(“You’re glowing,” Krolia observes when he returns to Daibazaal, hands on her hips.

“No I’m not,” Keith says, just to be argumentative.

Krolia raises a smug eyebrow. Keith deeply regrets introducing her to Shiro. “Congratulations, cub,” she says, and pulls him into a hug, one hand resting protectively on the top of his head. “Kolivan now owes me ten GAC.”

“You _bet on me_?” He pushes his face farther into Krolia’s shoulder, trying to hide his embarrassment. “ _Mom._ ”

“What?” she asks innocently, but when she pulls back, there’s a grin on her face. “I bet you would find each other within the next year. Kolivan thought you would pine forever. At least I had faith in you.”

Keith is super grateful he found his mom and all, but he had greatly underestimated how much _worse_ it was having two people to tease you instead of one. “Thanks, I guess,” he says, but when he leaves for his quarters, there’s a stupid smile on his face.)

(He passes Acxa in the hallway. She holds out her hand for a high-five, smirking, and he slaps his palm against hers, returning the smile. “Ezor just won thirty GAC,” she calls over her shoulder.

“ _You too?”_ )

 

\--

 

As it turns out, planning a wedding is hard work.

Curtis’ family is doing some of the work, but Keith still has to plan the bachelor party—and stop Lance and Matt from hiring a stripper just to mess with Shiro—and write his speech, which must contain every single one of Shiro’s most embarrassing moments. Hunk is in charge of food, of course, and Lance and Matt are in charge of reception entertainment. Pidge is working on some secret project that no one else knows about.

It also quickly becomes clear that Keith’s main job is calming down Shiro, who has no less than three breakdowns about floral arrangements within the first month. Keith ends up spending more and more time on Earth, which isn’t really a problem because it means he gets to see Lance more often.

They’re setting on the porch outside Keith’s old shack one day, waiting out Shiro’s latest wedding hyper-fixation. Keith’s head is in Lance’s lap, and Lance is playing with Keith’s hair, braiding and unbraiding little sections and smoothing any loose strands away from his face.

“Think Shiro gave me the shovel talk yesterday,” Lance says, bopping Keith’s nose.

Keith slaps a hand over his face, groaning. They’re not exactly trying to hide their relationship, but Keith wants Lance to be comfortable and sure with himself before they tell the others, and Shiro technically isn’t even supposed to know. “What did he say?”

“Well, I was going over a couple ideas with him about, like, bands and stuff, and I mentioned something you’d said, and he just goes, ‘ _oh yes. Keith. You know, he’s the bane of my existence, but he’s my little brother. He pretends like he’s a big emo but he’s really just_ rawr xd _and emotionally constipated._ ’”

Keith narrows his eyes. “Shiro did not say that.”

Lance places a hand over his heart, eyes widening dramatically. “Keith. Babe. _Cari_ _ño_. Are you saying I’m _lying_?”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “Yes.”

Lance huffs, but he’s smiling fondly as he brings Keith’s hand up to his mouth and kisses his knuckles. “Well, _anyway_ , he says, ‘ _Keith has been through a lot, and a lot of people have hurt him, and as his big brother, it’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen again. So, hypothetically, I would hope that anyone he dated would treat him right, no matter how stupid he is. If not, I would not be very happy. Hypothetically. You know?_ ’ And then he just, like, crushes the soda can he's holding in his robot hand entirely flat. It was kind of terrifying.”

Despite being a decorated captain and the former leader of Voltron, Shiro’s utter lack of subtlety is truly astounding. “ _Jesus—Christ_ ,” Keith grits out, covering his face. Lance laughs and pulls his hands away, lacing them with his own.

“I said I hoped they would, too,” Lance says softly. “’Cuz Keith deserves someone who loves him.”

“Yeah?” Keith asks, swallowing thickly, because he’s thought the words, knows they’re there, but they’ve never left the tip of his tongue.

“Yeah,” Lance confirms, and leans down to kiss him. Kosmo, who has apparently been waiting exactly for this moment, bounds up and jumps onto them, knocking Lance over.

Keith meets Lance’s eyes as Kosmo begins a second attack, tail wagging like crazy, and they both start laughing. Yeah, Keith’s life is ridiculous, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

\--

 

(“Curtis says he wants beige napkins,” Shiro reports one day as he closes his communicator, two hours into wedding planning.

Keith, who has been wanting to stab something for the last hour, looks out at the table currently outfitted with at least twelve different beige napkins. “ _Which. One_?”)

 

\--

 

Shiro’s bachelor party takes place on Allura’s day.

They spend the morning at a spa, because the dude needs a _break_ , but they all meet on New Altea for dinner. It’s perfect for Shiro, who never really liked being the center of attention. New beginnings from endings, the cycle continuing on. He thinks Allura would’ve liked it, too. Shiro had wanted her to be involved.

Keith holds Lance’s hand under the table when he thinks the others aren’t looking, and they laugh and laugh and laugh, and he doesn’t think there’s anything better than this moment.

 

\--

 

Later that night, when Lance is dead asleep, Keith slips out of his arms and heads outside, feet taking him to the Blue Lion.

Blue regards him silently, staying perfectly still. He knows no one’s been inside her since Allura died, and knows most people avoid her, too. The Lion is a shrine more than anything else now, a sentient gravestone.

Keith places a careful hand on her muzzle. He doesn’t know exactly what to say, just that he has to say something to her, a last, final message.

“Allura,” he says thickly, taking a deep breath to steady himself. “I just want to say thank you. For everything. But mostly for loving Lance.” There’s a prickling at the back of his neck then, a presence. “You loved him and he loved you, and I can’t thank you enough for giving him that. He’s—he’s doing better now. It took a while, but he doesn’t hurt so much anymore. We made sure of it.”

Keith’s crying a little now, but he refuses to wipe the tears away. “I promise to take care of him, Allura. I promise to love him just as much. I promise.”

He feels her then, a thick cascade of emotion swirling through him, and he drops to his knees, still holding onto Blue’s muzzle. Allura’s not so much speaking to him as she is surrounding him, but he feels her, feels the warm rush of gratitude that washes over him.

You can love two people at once. Two people can love the same person, too.

When he climbs back into bed beside Lance, eyes dried, Lance stirs. “Keef?” he mumbles, blinking up at him sleepily.

Keith just smiles and pulls him close, pressing his mouth against the line of Lance’s shoulder. He can feel Lance’s heart beating under his palm, strong and steady. “Go back to sleep, sharpshooter,” he says, and closes his eyes.

 

\--

 

Everyone cries at Shiro’s wedding.

Keith doesn’t bother to try and hide it anymore, because he’s looking out at all these people he loves, all these people who love Shiro, and they’re crying too. Because Shiro looks so goddamn happy and Keith has been waiting for this for years, waiting for Shiro to get every ounce of happiness this cruel universe owes him.

“Do you, Curtis Pyne, take Takashi Shirogane to be your lawfully wedded husband, promising to love and cherish each other through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, and whatever challenges you may face, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” Curtis says, and swallows thickly, his own eyes brimming with tears as he slides one of the rings Pidge made over Shiro’s finger, the tiny Balmeran crystal shining in the light.

“And do you, Takashi Shirogane, take Curtis Pyne to be your lawfully wedded husband, promising to love and cherish each other through joy and sorrow, sickness and health, and whatever challenges you may face, for as long as you both shall live?”

“I do,” Shiro says as the other ring slides onto Curtis’ finger, and he’s smiling so wide, so happy, and when Keith looks at him he forgets Shiro was ever in a war, ever hurt, ever lost. Forgets he ever thought Shiro had lost his chance to have this.

“Then I pronounce you husband and husband,” Sam Holt says, and takes a step back. There’s something like pride in his eyes, the fierce kind of a man who has seen someone he considers a son live through hell and come back. “You may kiss the groom.”

As Curtis and Shiro move toward each other, both beaming like the sun, Keith thinks it’s the most glorious thing he’s ever seen.

(Later, he will give a speech that starts with, “I first met Shiro when I was thirteen and stole his car. Somehow, I’m not the disaster gay between the two of us,” and ends with Shiro crying, despite having to be held down by Lance, Hunk _and_ Matt less than a minute before to prevent him from tackling Keith. But right now, Keith just watches the two of them, thankful that for all the shit this universe has pulled, it could finally give Shiro everything he deserved.)

 

\--

 

Keith and Lance sit side-by-side as Shiro and Curtis have their first dance. Keith drinks in the moment, because he never thought he would get to see Shiro this happy, this content, after Adam. It’s not the same Shiro he first imagined it to be, with the missing arm and the scar across the bridge of his nose and the shock-white of his hair, but it’s Shiro. After everything, he got his happy ending. Lance doesn’t say anything, just holds him, because he knows how much this means to Keith. Knows how much this means to him, too.

When the song ends, Lance stands up and offers a hand to Keith, smiling dangerously. “Hey, hot alien boyfriend, wanna show these old farts how to boogie?”

Keith laughs, because it’s so stupid, so ridiculously _Lance_ , and he’s just glad he gets to see this part of him again. He hates dancing, but he can make an exception this time, so he takes Lance’s hand and lets him pull him onto the dance floor.

Shiro raises an eyebrow as they spin past, looking extremely smug. Lance is circling them through a diverse medley of genres, from salsa to the Charleston to the waltz to the whip, and Keith is laughing, not a single clue what he’s doing. Then Veronica is pulling a reluctant Acxa onto the dance floor, and then Matt is half-assing a foxtrot with his girlfriend, and Hunk and Shay are slow-dancing, and Pidge and Coran are dabbing and Slav is doing some ridiculous thrashing movement in the corner, and Keith loves it. It’s messy and it’s ridiculous, but it’s perfect, and Keith wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love you so much,” Keith says, half-way through this ridiculous box-step, and Lance stops, staring at him open-mouthed.

“ _Keith_ ,” he says, and then he’s smiling wide, the Altean marks on his face almost blinding, “I love you too. I don’t know where I’d be without you, samurai.”

Then he’s pressing kisses all over Keith’s face and Keith is laughing and he can hear his friends wolf-whistling in the background, but he doesn’t care. It’s just the two of them, Keith and Lance, Red and Blue, Samurai and the Sharpshooter.

It’s perfect.

 

\--

 

They all meet again on the next Allura’s day. Pidge looks like a middle-aged American tourist, Hunk’s growing a beard, Coran’s mustache is even bushier, and Shiro has dad glasses. And Keith is exactly where he belongs: his friends around him, a Lion to call his, and an organization he helped shape behind him. He is twenty-five years old and he has a home in Cuba, an alien mother, an annoying older brother, a space dog, and a wonderfully ridiculous boyfriend.

You can’t see it in the picture they took, but behind Hunk’s shoulder, Keith has his arm around Lance’s waist, and both of them are finally, truly happy.

**Author's Note:**

> edit: added the krolia scene after klance get together + made a couple small edits
> 
> in case anyone is wondering, the meme pidge sends is [this](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/persian-cat-room-guardian), the one keith sends is [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/GangstaGrannies/duplicates/4aq1sx/thug_akimbo_since_1913/), and the video matt imitates is [this vine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnavcUHC6zc).   
> (also, just to clarify, none of the paladins chose their own names for the groupchat, hence why shiro is space papa even though he hates it, and lance for some reason is mr lanceman (like the song mr sandman), but hey)
> 
> as for the spanish, _mijo_ translates to 'my son', _dios mío_ means 'my god', _cariño_ is a term of endearment (like sweetie/honey/darling), and _novio_ and _asere_ are the spanish word for 'boyfriend' and the cuban slang for 'friend' respectively (i imagine the conversation to be something about lance's brothers calling keith lance's boyfriend, and lance very unconvincingly saying he's just a friend).
> 
> hoo boy. this has been my hyperfixation for the last four days, and it's kind of a mess, but i'm happy with it.
> 
> my goal here was to work largely within the canon given. i loved allura's character (and almost cried when she died), and while i personally don't ship allurance, i wanted to treat their relationship respectfully, because it was a huge part of lance. i wanted to treat the grieving process right, too, and not rush things, because neither keith nor lance would want to enter a relationship if one of them wasn't fully ready for it. i also liked the idea of keith and lance just kind of falling together, instead of it being this big passionate moment, because i haven't seen it a lot in fic.
> 
> my tumblr is [disasteralex](https://disasteralex.tumblr.com/) if you want to follow me there. comments are also always appreciated if you want to give me any feedback on this -- i may or may not have a lance-centric companion piece to this and there's a bunch of cut scenes i have left over from both, so let me know if you'd enjoy either of those as well :)
> 
> (also, the klance playlist i used for inspiration while writing this can be found [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4h8FKLIMcdv7w4EwWn8ymv), if anyone wants to listen to it. it's not mine, but it's very good)


End file.
